Will the falling satellites hit anything on their way down? President Zi asked once he had calmed down after his outburst.

Based on their trajectory, the man opened his laptop and typed furiously, bringing up an orbital model of the satellites in orbit from the confidential servers at the ITU, theyre headed directly for some American and Russian satellites. He turned the laptop around and showed the labeled orbital map to the president. That assumes that the Americans and Russians dont adjust their satellites to avoid the collision.

How long until the earliest collision? the president followed up.

An hour or so, sir. Are you going to inform them so they can avoid it?

Why would I do that? Zi Jinping chuckled. We can use it to our benefit, he finished with a sinister smile on his face. All of his anger had dissipated when he realized that he didnt have to do anything and the Edenians would walk into a trap on their own.

What benefit, sir? asked the minister.

How many of them are going to crash?

Due to the distances and the mechanics involved, the chances of a collision are normally really low. But the way ours are deorbiting seems like the paths have almost been calculated to purposefully cause collisions. If thats true, and it isnt just an accident, theyll take out ten satellites from Russia and another ten from America.

Good, good, good! Zi nodded. He was thrilled by the news.

Contact the American and Russian embassies. Let them know I need an emergency conference call with Presidents Trump and Putin. We need to organize a joint response thats powerful enough to negate Edens stealth missile bombardments. If we cant detect their missiles, lets give them so many things to shoot them at that they run out of missiles before we run out of targets to give them.

In a war of attrition, China would never fear anyone. There was a popular apocryphal anecdote about the interaction between Russia and China at the end of WWII. It was said that Joseph Stalin, at the end of the war, contacted the Chinese government and threatened to invade them with 250,000 Russian tanks.

The Chinese leader laughed and said, Go ahead. Send your tanks, your infantry, and your planes. Send them all! Ill meet you at the border with peasants armed with sticks and rocks. Youll run out of bullets and bombs before China runs out of peasants!

Stalin decided against the invasion and backed down after hearing that.

The same still held true to this day, but China now had allies, both of convenience and by treaties. So why would Zi Jinping suffer all of the losses when he could share that suffering with Edens other enemies?

Theres a perfect opportunity for us, father. One that even removes the need for us to personally step in and make a move, George Morgan reported to his father.

True. Aubrey Morgan turned to his secretary and ordered, Get the president on the line.

Aubreys secretary took out the burner phone they used when they needed to directly contact President Trump and dialed a number from memory. No numbers would ever be saved in the contacts of their stock of confidential burner phones.

Aron was in VR, floating in space with the Earth and its satellites below him. All of them were labeled, and he was watching the events unfold.

The balls in your court now, so what will you do? he mused as he watched Chinas satellites fall. Some of them were doomed to collide with others, while some would coincidentally make landfall on a few particularly nasty politicians properties. And one very special one was aimed directly at the Morgan family compound.

Nova appeared near him and asked, [Do you think theyll dodge them?]

It depends. If the Morgans make a move, at least three American satellites will be taken down, assuming the Rothschilds do nothing. As for Russia, theyre focused on their own thing. Theyve marched on Kyiv and will be there in a week or so, if nothing drastic happens. Ukraine cant support itself, and with just the limited support were providing them, a week is the longest they can delay their impending downfall.

Aron really was planning on facing the entire world all at once.

A tall, scrawny old man with a hunched back, dressed in tattered sackcloth and wearing rags wrapped around his feet appeared. Silent tears were flowing down his face and he carried an empty clay bowl with chips on the rim and cracks throughout. He was none other than Coeus, the AI responsible for the Coeus Foundation. [Many people will die if they respond,] he said, grieving the upcoming loss of life.

He was the kindest of the AIs and would always mourn for any lives lost. But though he was kind and thoughtful, he wasnt an idiot; he understood that Arons plan of becoming the whole worlds enemy would end things with the least possible loss of life. But while Aron may think of it in colder terms, and considered the loss acceptable in terms of human resources, Coeus would always think of things from the point of view of the families left behind by the people who were about to die.

Itll be a war to end all wars on Earth, Aron responded. He wouldnt belittle the AI or his beliefs at all, as he understood that Coeus personality wasnt as cold as the rest of his siblings, who had been made for conflict, both military and business.

And this is how it begins, he continued as he watched a Chinese satellite impact an American GPS satellite. The collision sent millions of fragments flying in all directions, destined to either burn up in the atmosphere or litter the orbital range with more dangerous space junk until it either escaped Earths gravity or settled into a regular orbit, like the rest of the junk surrounding the planet.